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Gifted Personality From

3 PerspectivesDr. Shelagh A. Gallagher

Engaged EducationCharlotte, NC

sgallagher5@carolina.rr.com

slides: http://www.rfwp.com Shelagh Gallagher downloads

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, ... How could we ever recover from the wonder of it? Jeanette Winterson

My Journey’s Beginning

Are Gifted StudentsQualitatively Different?

Are the DifferencesImportant?

How do the Differences

Relate to our Goals?

Big Five Trait

DabrowskiDevelopmental Potential

MBTIType

Five Factor Model

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism

Extraversion

Openness to Experience

Cold/Unkind ------ Friendly/Compassionate

Efficient/Organized ------ Easy Going/Careless

Sensitive/Nervous ------ Secure/Comfortable

Solitary/Reserved ------ Outgoing/Energetic

Consistent/Cautious ---- Inventive/Curious

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism/Stable

Openness to Experience

Extraversion

Intraversion              -­‐          Extraversion

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Energized by the INNER world

Energized by the OUTER world

Intraversion-­‐Extraversion

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Big Five

elementary v. high school speed verbal v. nonverbal

Facets: Activity, Excitement Seeking = positive correlation with intelligence

Gregariousness = negative correlation with intelligence

Inconsistent findings, slight tendency for EXTRAVERSION to be positively correlated with IQ

Introversion-­‐Extraversion Myers-­‐Briggs  Type  Indicator

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MBTIBig Five r = .59

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Study Sample Extraversion Introversion

Normative Group 9,320 64.8 35.2

Sak, 2004 5,834 51.3 48.7

Cross et al., 2007 931 gifted high school students 49.7 50.3

Folger et al., 2003 96 college honors students 50 49.5

Lysy & Piechowski, 1983 44 graduate students 45 55

Ruf & Radosevich, 2009 124 gifted youth and adults 44.6 55.4

Extraversion-Introversion among Gifted Students

Gi<ed  Students  are  NOT overwhelmingly  predisposed  to Inclined  towards  Introversion

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Proportionally, more gifted students than typical students are likely to be Introverted

because the typical population is somewhat predisposed towards

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism/Stable

Extraversion

Openness to Experience

Openness to Experience

the active seeking and appreciation of experiences for their own sake

Facets:

Ideas: intellectual curiosity

Values: readiness to re-examine own values and those

of authority figures

Fantasy: receptivity to the inner world of imagination

Aesthetics: appreciation of art and beauty

Feelings: openness to inner feelings and emotions

Actions: openness to new experiences on a practical level

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OPENNESS to Experience

Creativity

Ideas Values Action

Based on Gallagher, S. (in press, 2012). Building bridges: Using the Big Five, Jungian type, and overexcitabilities to Explore Personality Differences of Gifted Youth. In C. Neville, M. Piechowski, & S. Tolan (Eds.). Off the charts! Asynchrony and the gifted child. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Press.

Aesthetics

Fantasy Feeling

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Creative scientists and artists score higher on Openness than

their less creative counterparts (Feist, 1998)

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OPENNESS to Experience

Creativity

Moral Reasoning

Ideas Values Action

Based on Gallagher, S. (in press, 2012). Building bridges: Using the Big Five, Jungian type, and overexcitabilities to Explore Personality Differences of Gifted Youth. In C. Neville, M. Piechowski, & S. Tolan (Eds.). Off the charts! Asynchrony and the gifted child. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Press.

Aesthetics

Fantasy Feeling

97 gifted high school students had higher scores on both Openness to Experience and moral reasoning than 140 college students.

Regression analysis demonstrated that a preference for complexity explained more of the variance in moral reasoning scores than ACT scores.

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OPENNESS to Experience

Creativity

Moral Reasoning

AbsorptionIdeas Values Action

Aesthetics

Fantasy Feeling

AbsorpJon  or  Flow

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the tendency to sink into a task or experience with an intense, exclusive focus is correlated with Openness to Experience

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OPENNESS to Experience

Creativity

Moral Reasoning

AbsorptionIdeas Values Action

Emotional Awareness

Aesthetics

Fantasy Feeling

“Openness was most strongly associated with positive emotion experienced during complex gathering and manipulation of information, although it also strongly predicted compassion … and significantly predicted joy and love”

(Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006, p. 67-68).

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OPENNESS to Experience

Creativity

Moral Reasoning

AbsorptionIdeas Values Action

Emotional Awareness

Based on Gallagher, S. (in press, 2012). Building bridges: Using the Big Five, Jungian type, and overexcitabilities to Explore Personality Differences of Gifted Youth. In C. Neville, M. Piechowski, & S. Tolan (Eds.). Off the charts! Asynchrony and the gifted child. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Press.

Aesthetics

Fantasy Feeling

Relationship with Intelligence?

Strongly correlated with IQ

Correlation between Openness and Measures of Intelligence

0.30

‘Moderate’ or ‘Moderate to Large’

Zeidner & Shani-Zinovich, 2011

Comparison of 374 gifted and 478 typical

high school students

Gifted significantly higher on Openness to Experience

McCrae et al., 2002, p. 1463

230 gifted students2,748 typically developing

gifted students 0.5 standard deviations difference

“At age 12, [gifted students] have already reached the level of [Openness to Experience] characteristic of [typical] 15-

year-olds”

Enhances intelligence

Strongly correlated with IQ

Crystallized Intelligence

Fluid IntelligenceOpenness to

Experience

Openness contributes to crystallized intelligenceand somewhat to fluid and general intelligence

Enhances intelligence

Substantially heritable

Strongly correlated with IQ

Observable from Early Childhood

Children who are more Open take more from their environment

High IQ children retain their childlike capacity of soaking up information

Enhances intelligence

Substantially heritable

Strongly correlated with IQ

consistently related to school achievement

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

Not

Openness is related to college GPA, not high school GPA

High IQ may negate the need for Conscientiousness?

Openness related to slower processing speed (reflective)

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OPENNESS to Experience

Creativity

Moral Reasoning

BeliefsIdeas Values Action Emotional Awareness

Intelligence

Based on Gallagher, S. (2012). Building bridges: Using the Big Five, Jungian type, and overexcitabilities to Explore Personality Differences of Gifted Youth. In C. Neville, M. Piechowski, & S. Tolan (Eds.). Off the charts! Asynchrony and the gifted child. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks Press.

Aesthetics

Fantasy Feeling

Big Five trait

Openness to Experience

IntelligenceCreativity/Originality

Moral ReasoningCuriosity

Heritable

Absorption/Intensity

Emotional Awareness

AcademicAchievement

Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., 2010, p. 3

A Definition of OPENESS TO EXPERIENCE

Individuals who are high in openness to experience tend to have an active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness

to inner feelings, preference for variety, intellectual curiosity, and independence of judgment. Open individuals are

curious about both inner and outer worlds, and their lives are experientially richer than those of closed individuals. They are willing to entertain novel ideas and unconventional values, and they experience both positive and negative emotions more keenly....Open individuals are willing to question authority

and are prepared to entertain new ethical, social and political ideas.

DabrowskiDevelopmental Potential

extremes of emotioncomplex emotions

and feelingsawareness of a whole

rangephysical expressions

of emotionstrong affective

memory

Frequent use of image and metaphorinventionfantasy

detailed visualizationimaginatry companions

curiosityconcentrationavid reading

keen observationdetailed visual recall

detailed planningtheory and analysis

logicmoral thinking

conceptual and intuitive integration

Imaginational Emotional Intellectual

DabrowskiDevelopmental Potential

Bouchet & Falk, 2001Daniels & Piechowski, 2008

Gallagher, 1985Mendaglio & Tiller, 2006

Piechowski, Silverman, & Falk, 1985

Overexcitabilities Associated with Giftedness

Individuals who are high in openness to experience tend to have an active imagination,

aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, intellectual curiosity, and

independence of judgment. Open individuals are curious about both inner and outer worlds, and

their lives are experientially richer than those of closed individuals. They are willing to entertain

novel ideas and unconventional values, and they experience both positive and negative emotions more keenly....Open individuals are willing to

question authority and are prepared to entertain new ethical, social and political ideas.

Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., 2010, p. 3

Overexcitabilities

IntellectualEmotional

Imaginational

Big Five trait

Openness to Experience

IntelligenceCreativity/Originality

Moral ReasoningCuriosity

Heritable

Absorption/Intensity

Emotional Awareness

DabrowskiDevelopmental Potential

PsychomotorSensual

AcademicAchievement

MBTItype

MBTItype

Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorFour Scales

Extraversion (E) -Introversion (I)

Sensing (S) -Intuition (N)

Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)

Judging (J) - Perceiving (P)

Sensing-IntuitionSensing (S) Sensing refers to how people process data. Sensing people focus on the present, they are "here and now" people, who are factual and process information through the five senses. They see things as they are, they are concrete thinkers.

Sensing Characteristics ¥ Concrete ¥ Realistic ¥ Lives in the present ¥ Aware of surroundings ¥ Notices details ¥ Practical ¥ Goes by senses ¥ Factual

Intuition (N) Intuition refers to how people process data. Intuitive people focus on the future and the possibilities. They process information through patterns and impressions. They read between the lines, they are abstract thinkers.

Intuitive Characteristics ¥ Future-focused ¥ Sees possibilities ¥ Inventive ¥ Imaginative ¥ Deep ¥ Abstract ¥ Idealistic ¥ Complicated ¥ Theoretical

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MBTI Intuition

Creativity

Moral Reasoning

Emotional Awareness

Intelligence

Sensing-IntuitionOpenness

toExperience

.72 general population

.31 Talent Search adolescents

IntuitiveOpen

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Study Sample Sensing Intuition

Normative Group 9,320 68.1 31.9Sak, 2004 5,834 28.4 71.7Cross et al., 2007 931 gifted high school

students 31.1 68.9Folger et al., 2003 96 college honors students 34.4 65.6Lysy & Piechowski, 1983 44 graduate students 25 75McCaulley, 1976 1001 National Merit Finalists 17.6 82.4Ruf & Radosevich, 2009 124 gifted youth and adults 16.1 83.9

MacKinnon, 1978120 (approx) creative scientists, mathematicians, architects, writers

4 96

http://oddlydevelopedtypes.com/content/intps-

Logical and Ingenious

Knowledge is important

For its own sake

Enthusiastic and Insightful

Knowledge is important

For Creating Change

Creative Productive Adults

Adult Expertise/Genius

“The case studies we have reviewed are consistent with the idea that Openness to Experience is a key feature of the psychology of

genius.

Perhaps genius is a quality of the mind...an approach that takes in much of life experience, processes it deeply and discovers new

possibilities.” (p. 237)

R. R. McCrea & D. M. Greenberg (2014). Openness to experience. in D.K. Simonton (Ed.) The Wiley handbook of genius (p. 222-243).

Big Five trait

Openness to Experience

IntelligenceCreativity/Originality

Moral ReasoningCuriosity

Heritable

Absorption/Intensity

Emotional Awareness

DabrowskiDevelopmental Potential

MBTItype

Advanced Epistemology

PsychomotorSensual

AcademicAchievement

Neuroticism

Extraversion/Introversion

Are Gifted StudentsQualitatively Different?

Are the DifferencesImportant?

How do the Differences

Relate to our Goals?

What is Giftedness?Gifted Student v. Disciplined High Achiever

“…I started ninth grade when I was twelve—and…there was another girl a couple of months older than me who was also starting the ninth grade.…the main difference between us is that she was working really, really hard to maintain good grades at the ninth grade level at age 12. She was having a real struggle, she was constantly having to do homework, she had to put a ton of effort in. Whereas, I was sitting in all my classes daydreaming because I still wasn’t being challenged—because the way traditional curriculum is taught doesn’t hold my attention, so I always thought there was an extreme difference between [us], …seeing this girl’s experience compared to mine when we were the same age in the same grade, ....I didn’t really understand much about giftedness, but even at that point I thought, “This doesn’t really seem like the same situation!”

(Gatto-Walden & Tolan, 2012)

Are Gifted StudentsQualitatively Different?

Are the DifferencesImportant?

How do the Differences

Relate to our Goals?

• early childhood fostering in K,1,2,

• reality of differentiation?

• can we increase openness in those who are not? Not the way we teach now

• new ways of thinking about school…Will Richardson

• what are the implications of an ‘open’ environment on non-gifted kids?

• connects to different theories of pedagogy

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains. Alfred North Whitehead

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. Ralph W. Sockman

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. Albert Einstein

In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries .... They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy.... Carl Sagan

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. ...It is truly one of the things that make life worth living. Richard Dawkins

The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” Rachel Carson

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, ... How could we ever recover from the wonder of it? Jeanette Winterson